Paris Metro Station Arts et Metiers stop

This Metro station was completed redesigned in 1994 based on steam power science fiction on the bicentenary of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers Museum and is a very unusual tourist attraction in Paris.

About the Arts et Metiers Metro station

The Paris Metro station called the Arts et Metiers stop was first opened in 1904 and was one of the stations serving line 3 from Pere Lechaise cemetery, and it was inaugurated with its name because of its location being close to the historical Arts and Crafts museum in Paris, which is housed in a former priory and church that is called the Saint-Martin-des-Champs.

It was then in 1935 that the station was expanded in order to receive trains for the number 11 line of the Metro, and bar regular maintenance work with a few updates, the station remained the same for many years.

That is, up until 1994 when the decision was taken to completely renovate the whole Arts et Metiers Metro station in order to mark the bicentenary of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, which is normally just referred to as the Musee des Arts et Metiers.

With a partnership between the Paris Transport Authority and the Arts and Crafts Museum, the whole concept was conceived and designed by Francois Schuiten, who is a Belgian comic artist.

And the design is based upon a style known as steampunk, which incorporates usually fictional steam powered machines, etc that are brought into reality as though you were the inventor or writer looking into the future.

The style chosen by the artist is reminiscent of works by famous authors such as H G Wells, although the actual theme of the Metro station itself was in recognition and memory of the works by Jules Verne.

So, when you go inside the Arts et Metiers Metro station and go onto the line 11 platform you can imagine yourself being in a rather large yet old fashioned submarine, as there is lots of brass adorning the walls and ceilings.

But there are also portholes that you can gaze at with their unusual scenes such as one of a fantasy style flying airship with wings for instance, and if you look up at the ceiling you can discover cogs or wheels, which are suspended and seem to almost be dropping down from the ceiling. So as you can tell, this is a practical and very unusual tourist attraction in Paris that you can visit while on route to other places around the city.

Visiting the Arts et Metiers Metro station

La Station de Metro Arts et Metiers is located in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris just outside the Musee des Arts et Metiers and serves lines 3 and 11, however, it is the line 11 platform, which has been totally transformed.

And the Metro is normally open from around 5.30am through to around 1am daily all year round, and still has a service on national French holidays.

So if you can utilise the metro line 11, you can also get to places such as the Tour Saint Jacques and the Hotel de Ville or the Place de la Republique, which are close to different stations on this route through Paris.